Herby Meatballs
A very easy make ahead dish, tastes great warmed up after a long day at sea!
Ingredients for the meatballs:
250g minced beef (or pork or chicken?)
1 small red onion, very finely diced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 tsp ground cumin and ground coriander
Finely chopped herbs, I used parsley, mint and dill (chop double, 1/2 is for sauce)
1 tbsp ground almonds
A little sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Just combine all ingredients very well, shape into balls (I made ...
Chocolate Coconut Bites
My first attempt, not very pretty but tasty? Oh yes! If I'd remembered to spread the paste on greaseproof paper they would've been far easier to remove.
Ingredients:
100g coconut (desiccated or flour, I only had flour)
1 heaped soup spoon raw honey
3 heaped soup spoons coconut oil
Either blitz together in a food processor or beat frantically with a wooden spoon until a smooth light paste. Spread on greaseproof to desired thickness and chill until hard (roughly 30 mins).
Whilst that's ...
Easy Marinated Pork Chops
A kick of ginger, citrus and garlic. Obviously this would work brilliantly with chicken too!
Ingredients:
2 Pork chops
Grated zest of 1 lemon and 1 small orange plus grated knob of ginger and garlic cloves to taste.
Juice of the lemon, glug of olive oil, tsp honey, a dash of sea salt, freshly ground pepper
Combine ingredients and leave for at least an hour, turn meat occasionally to coat well.
Throw on your barbecue or in a sizzling frying pan until cooked, turn to brown ...
The Ionion is somewhere over there apparently….
Truly loved being in Roccella Marina, the free bicycle loan is genius (just leave a small contribution at the end of use for maintenance) and the cycle path is perfect all the way to the square. Poor tommy ran all the way there and back then promptly slept for the rest of the day, bless.. Excellent butcher, green grocers and other things that always make me smile :-) Pizza by the metre made the Boss smile.
Trip from there to Le Castella wasn't much fun, to say the sea was confused is an ...
Not just a boat mascot
I'm sure the dog thinks that at times, definitely when meeting fellow cruisers for the first time in several years with no recognition but the others say "oh look it's tommy"! I bet there's tons of woofs of agreement out there, we get it all the time right? :-)
Ok, I'm assuming we all keep their vaccinations up to date but what research do you do to find out what additional treatment they may need to avoid creepy crawlie things and diseases in other countries? I've never found one search ...
Asian inspired Pork Tenderloin
Succulent, full of Asian flavours and effortless.. What's not to like?
Beautiful piece of pork tenderloin, cut into thick steaks, marinated in:
1 tbsp coconut oil
2 cloves of grated garlic
1 tbsp freshly grated ginger
1 heaped tsp honey
Splash of soy sauce (use alternative by all means)
1 de seeded chopped chilli
Dash of Chinese 5 spice
Mix all together and add the meat. Leave for at least an hour.
Heat a little coconut oil until smoking in a pan, sear pork for a couple ...
A little about what to expect here
This idea was given by other people who asked if I'd be interested in hosting "guest articles" on subjects that us, fellow cruisers, could certainly learn from and perhaps adopt ideas even if we modify whatever it is to suit our lives. Why not? Simply living the lifestyles that many of us do means we're very open to new ideas and views :)
Fantastic to still be in contact with Larry (larryjacobson.com) as have such fond memories of casting "Julia's" lines off in Gran Canaria then ...
Chicken with Lemon, Dill and Caper Sauce
Keeping things very simple, fresh and light! So easy I'm just writing it out, all you need is:
2 Chicken breast, sliced. 2 cloves of garlic, smashed. Zest and juice of 2 lemon. 2 tblsp olive oil.
Marinate the above for at least 30 mins (in a non metallic bowl to avoid lemon juice reacting).
Sauce ingredients:
2 heaped tblsp fresh chopped dill, 1 heaped tblsp capers, knob of butter, freshly ground black pepper, juice of 1/2 a lemon.
Fry the chicken slices on high heat until ...
Roccella Ionica
Boat bits all in place, the windlass works (yipeeee) so we set off from Riposto marina at stupid o'clock. Luckily I was half awake so noticed that the Boss had only untied 2 lines, that would've been interesting!
Dolphins, dolphins everywhere for the first few hours. All hunting and too far away to get decent photos but never fail to make me grin like an over excited toddler.
So I was bored and decided to do a quick workout, Turkish get ups and Russian twists - not for the ...
Mount Etna, Risposto and Taormina
Simply fantastic!
Well yes I could certainly get used to waking to this view, couldn't you?
Delighted to say our parcel arrived so we've got the gypsy, hurray! It's bright and shiny, I just want to kiss it. We stopped at Riposto marina for the night, http://www.portodelletna.com, first impressions are so easily clouded as within 20 mins of tying up there was thunder, rain and gusts of wind. I wasn't happy, but then the sun came out and we went exploring. Loved the ...
